Chair Site Evaluation:
Clinical Site Visit
August 25, 2016
Faculty: Celia Lu, Pharm.D.
Assistant Professor – Industry Professional
Site: Northwell Health- Division of General Internal Medicine
New Hyde Park, NY
Area of Specialization: Ambulatory Care
Initial Date of Tenure-Track Appointment: September 1, 2016
Dr. Lu has been with the University for approximately two years. During the first two years of her academic appointment at St. John’s University, she served as a contract faculty appointment and established a clinical service in ambulatory care at Northwell Health for experiential teaching of pharmacy students. She recently began a tenure-track faculty appointment on September 1, 2016 and has maintained her practice site at Northwell Health.
A. Teaching:
Dr. Lu continues to serve as a positive role model and educator for the Doctor of Pharmacy students in an ambulatory care clinic. She precepts Doctor of Pharmacy students completing their ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE). This experiential rotation course provides the students with a wide range of patient care activities in an ambulatory care setting. Students are actively integrated into all of Dr. Lu’s clinical pharmacy services (see below) and in the education of patients regarding their drug therapy. Dr. Lu has collaborated with Dr. Chim (Assistant Professor- Industry Professional) to have their student case presentations combined in the form of “Ambulatory Care Rounds” to maximize the learning and teaching experiences, including their verbal communication skills. In addition to her usual teaching of APPE students for ambulatory care, Dr. Lu serves as an IMPACct elective APPE preceptor which provides her with the opportunity to provide Interprofessional education (IPE) opportunities to pharmacy students (alongside PA/MD/Psychology/Nurse Practitioner students).
Dr. Lu serves as an ambulatory care preceptor for pharmacists completing post-graduate residency programs at her practice site. The two residency programs include: Huntington Pharmacy Residency Program and the St. John’s University Pharmacy Residency through the SBIRT grant.
Additionally, Dr. Lu teaches in a Medical Resident Primary Care Elective course at
Northwell. The 2-week medicine primary elective includes a 2 hour session with a
pharmacist and student pharmacists. The purpose of this session is to introduce the medical resident to the role of the pharmacist in the provision of team-based patient care in the primary care setting. The medical resident medication also learns about the management of chronic disease states.
B. Clinical Service:
Dr. Lu has established a strong clinical practice and collaboratively works with medical providers at her clinic and within the Northwell health system. She serves as the Pharmacist Coordinator of the Anticoagulation and Clinical Thrombosis Service (ACTS), providing Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) services that include direct patient care and programmatic assessment of anticoagulation services at her practice site. She is a co-team leader for her sites participation in the larger scale Northshore-LIJ Anticoagulation Collaborative which is intended to reduce anticoagulation-related adverse events following the model from the Institute of HealthCare Improvement. In addition to her anticoagulation services, Dr. Lu provides comprehensive medication management services and diabetes management services. Furthermore she serves as a Program Facilitator of the patient group class at her clinic entitled: “Living Healthy- Chronic Disease Self-Management”. She serves as a drug information resource to the medical providers at her clinic and integrates her students in all of her clinical services.
C. Research/ Scholarly Activities
Dr. Lu has been involved in multiple scholarly activities:
Development of a Controlled Substance/Pain Management Policy (in collaboration with Dr. Marrast) for her clinic.
HRSA Grant: Primary Care Enhancement and Training Program (led by Dr. Conigliaro)
Role: Pharmacy Track Director (in collaboration with Drs.’ Nissa Mazzola, Danielle Ezzo, Christine Chim)
Description: The purpose of the 5-year grant is to address the shortage in physicians in primary care. To encourage more medical residents to pursue a career in this field, the team developed a primary care clinic called IMPACcT: Improving Patient Access, Care, and Cost Through Training. The program consists of an educational curriculum that includes experiences for the medical residents and students to be part of an interprofessional care team (pharmacy, physician assistants, psychology) to improve patient access, quality of care, and cost to an underserved population.
PACER: Professionals Accelerating Clinical and Educational Redesign (led by Dr. Conigliaro)
Role: Faculty Team Member
Description: Three-year program aimed to build high functioning interprofessional faculty teams equipped to transform their clinical practices and educational programs to prepare their trainees to work together in high performing patient centered medical homes
Faculty Partner in St. John’s SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral to Treatment) Grant (led by Dr. Olga Hilas and in collaboration with Dr. Sandeep Kapoor)
Description: Collaborate with members of the Northwell SBIRT team in training pharmacy students to conducting screening to identify patients at risk for substance abuse, perform brief intervention using motivational interviewing skills, and refer patients for treatment. Precepting of a St. John’s pharmacy resident is involved in the grant.
Research
ACCP MERIT research: Evaluation of medications that affect weight in the obese diabetic population
Summary:
During my visit to Dr. Lu’s site, I had the opportunity to meet with Dr. LaVine who serves as Director of the Northwell Health- Division of General Internal Medicine Clinic where Dr. Lu maintains her practice. Dr. LaVine identified Dr. Lu as an invaluable member of the health care team. She stated that Dr. Lu is intelligent, competent and committed to the medical team, her patients and her students. She commented that Dr. Lu’s students adore her and have a solid “hands-on” well-precepted experience that is routinely demonstrated by the students being well-prepared for their patient care experiences and positively impacting patient care. Dr. LaVine summarized the many clinical service and scholarly activities that Dr. Lu is involved with at the site and identified that Dr. Lu is exceptional in all that she does. She expressed that with this incredibly positive experience of having a dedicated pharmacist as a full member of the medical team, she would “never go back” to practicing without a clinical pharmacist.
Dr. Lu has established an exemplary clinical practice service at Northwell Health and has effectively integrated her students and professional services into the clinic. She is a competent clinician who is dedicated to patient care and improving the health of her patients. She is also a competent teacher who is dedicated to her students and health care team. I am very pleased with Dr. Lu’s professional growth and I look forward to her continued growth in the future. Dr. Lu is an excellent role model for our students.
Submitted,
John M Conry, Pharm. D., AAHIVP, FNAP
Clinical Professor and Chair
Department of Clinical Health Professions